Art and the Artist During the Great Patriotic War: Propaganda, Creativity, Therapy

The article studies the reflection of the Great Patriotic War era in the art of that time. The author examines the manifestation of the main functions of art — aesthetic, propaganda and psychotherapeutic — based on the works themselves, the statements of their authors and consumers, and the authorities' official attitudes. The article concludes that the general situation during the Great Patriotic War did not favor the creative self-expression of the artistic intelligentsia. Among the immediate reasons are both the traumatic experience of wartime everyday life, which created psychological barriers, and censorship ideological restrictions and propaganda, which excluded some themes and imposed others on artists. The enormous mobilizing effect of art during the war, as stated by Soviet historiography, can be considered exaggerated, given the known cases of opposition to it on the part of some of the artistic intelligentsia and the public’s rejection of certain “program” works. Nevertheless, art continued to fulfill other important functions, satisfying the aesthetic needs of the individual and offering therapeutic ways of accepting traumatic experiences. In the conditions of deep moral crisis caused by the war, dehumanization of the sphere of interpersonal relations, art maintained moral and ethical guidelines that allowed to hope for the preservation and restoration of the cultural foundations of society after the victory, as well.